A portal to another dimension

Behind us on the moors is a rather enigmatic stone arch - well, its a door way and the only remaining piece of a large farm house built in 1672 by a wealthy Yeoman farmer. We've visited it before, years ago when the boys were quite small and Youngest can only remember how foul the weather was....

For years, we've driven past it - it always seemed brooding and distant on the skyline as we drove along the winding road to Hebden Bridge and I had no inclination to revisit such a gloomy landmark.

Then a few weeks ago, I looked at it as we drove past. A small but dominant feature on an open moorland field and I suddenly had the urge to see it with new eyes. So, on Tuesday, Youngest took me for our first dogless walk to revisit a moment in our history that neither of us really recall clearly or kindly.

Standing at 11ish feet tall and with a now very weathered stone carved sign over the lintel - the door way stands proud in the landscape and I realised how little I know about it.

Typical for around where we live, a lot of narrow valleys were earmarked for reservoirs and just below the doorway are two such examples and apparently in 1886, the building was demolished for their construction. However they are too far away to have interfered with the building so I wondered if it had been relocated up above on the moors.

The weather that day was far kinder than our collective memories and in the spring sunshine, it felt rather refreshing to be out on the moors breathing in clear air and appreciating the far distant views.

We'll go back, but we'll walk further, towards the trees on the horizon then to their right where a more modern monument to the memory of a loved one is situated - a solid granite bench with an sublime view. 

Youngest has a vintage Kodak Polaroid camera with all the quirks and glitches befitting something of that age and he took an image of the door way - doesn't it look like a portal to another dimension? 

Yes, we thought so too.  Our memories of this archway are better ones now than the ones we'd harboured from before.

 

Weekending

 The verb 'weekending', to weekend, to do - so we did.

visiting... 

Knitter's Paradise  with Youngest and his lovely girl. 

The shop was in an old converted soap mill near Cullingworth - a treasure trove - will certainly return.

tempted...

there was a lot of squishing and holding of hanks of yarn and bundles of wool - 

the temptation was impossible to fight off.

purchasing ....

coming away with delicious rich russets, burgundys and chocolate browns to add to the growing Woodland Ripple blanket and a couple of pieces of woven fabric from the mill - I have plans!

Walking ...

Somewhere new, Manor Heath Garden Park, Halifax. 

Met up with Eldest and his lovely girl, had a picnic lunch and a dog walk. 

Baking...

Scones for Himself - with plant based milk and butter and topped with jam and coconut yoghurt - absolutely delicious. Becoming dairy intolerant post covid has been a bit of a trial but we are getting there.

Remembering...

Being sent a rediscovered photograph of a much loved and much missed little feline monkey.

I still 'see' her in the garden when I am working out there.

Crocheting ...

Adding the new yarns into the mix - the Woodland Ripple is growing - slowly but surely.

So - that was my weekend. Hope you had a good weekend too xxx

Tuesday spotlights🤍🤍

The tips of my fingers are still cool as is the end of my nose. The two digestive biscuits and mug of tea tasted amazing once we'd returned from our afternoon walk but are now long gone. The snow and ice that covered the ground first thing this morning (when my car thermometer registered -4.5℃) had begun to melt creating a green and white marble patterning on the grass.🤍💚

Our village has several prominent hills surrounding it and they were all still flecked white and draped in misty layers beneath the dark and heavy skies. Despite that, the sun managed to find chinks in the clouds and fill our walk with warmth and light.💛🤎

Himself, Youngest, Moss and I did our local 'dog-loop' which is our go to short walk when weather permits. 🧡❤️

I am sure - almost 99% sure - that I have spotted our first Highland Coo calf but the mum was a large and hairy barrier and all I could see were little legs beneath her tum. No lambs yet - far too cold to give birth outside and the ewes that are out in the fields are still 'mums-with-tums'!

It is dark now, Moss has been fed and is gently snoring while she dreams dog dreams, Himself is in the kitchen baking an apple crumble as I type here. After a rather long morning of completing on-line mandatory training - it is little precious moments like these that make my day.💙💜

Hope you have had some of those today too (and I don't mean the mandatory training!!)

Twixmas - a bit of this, a bit of that

After a few family filled days, at this moment, it is just myself and a mug of tea. The house is remarkably still and restful with just the hint sound trailing from the radio as it cheerfully plays hits from 2008. The overly youthful DJ announcing that she was only seven when these 'oldie-but goldie' tunes came out - what on earth is she talking about?? - it was only 'yesterday'! Gah - what does she know! 

What I do know is that this year gifts were definitely more thoughtful, more considerate.Something else I know, we quaffed countless mugs of tea - teas of all flavours with many differing varieties of milk. Keeps me on my toes - making sure everyone has the correct combination.

I find at this time of year - the kitchen becomes the engine room of the house, churning out not only meals for hungry tums, but festive treats and bakes too. I've tried a couple of new to me recipes (inspired by the unreachable perfection of instagram) but will need to practice/improve/give up/admit defeat 😆😆. 

The weather has been rather predictably rubbish - that pristine but brittle cold blue sky slid into a driech grey wet blanket with on off miserable rain. It does make hunkering down by the fire rather enticing while dog walks are more a feat of endurance that a pleasure. We have had a couple of gently splendid soft grey and peach sunsets sprinkled liberally with hail - they were bracingly joyful made all that much better by returning home and putting the kettle on with mincepies and ginger biscuits calling out to be eaten.

We will have a couple of days to ourselves, Himself and I, while the boys spend time with their extended families and although a walk or two has been discussed - the weather, once again - will feature somewhat!

There is something about this time of year - it makes me restless - I feel the need for an adventure, not quite on the level that Bilbo Baggins undertook however - I can feel that need rising.  

Do you get that stirring of restlessness or (if you are in the northern hemisphere) happy to hibernate?

 And one last image - a fuzzy-zoomy photo of Moss as we performed a double quick march to get home before the hail shower pinged our respective noses even more!

 

The 'hole' weekend

It appears that a three day weekend seems to go as quickly as a two day one. Today, being a bank holiday, was a quiet one. There had been a palpable sombre tension in the air, although now mid afternoon, life seems to be returning with cars driving through the village and dog walkers scattered on every path and lane.

Himself's jeans before (with massive knee tear) and after with the Ganzezashi pattern also known as the sea urchin stitch

Having finished Himself's pullover and with a serious crafting/sewing itch, I tackled a pile of jeans with various holes and tears.  I am still inspired by Sashiko and used motifs from a book which Eldest and his lovely girl gave me a little while ago.

Eldest's jeans with a simple concentric circle pattern and a Jujitsunagi named after the kanji character for ten which suggests prosperity with ever increasing tens - I left one character unfinished to imply future prosperity still to come

Eldest had managed to tear holes in a couple of pairs of fairly new jeans so they too were reinforced with supporting fabric and more Sashiko inspired stitching. We'll be seeing them this weekend and I will happily hand over two pairs of hole-free jeans.

Himself knocking holes in the lounge chimney breast, and in the attic wall, 

Eldest and Himself up on our roof - manhandling the  flue into the chimney

Speaking of holes, Himself has been mending holes too. Our woodburner flue - the liner running up our chimney came to the end of it's life - which entailed removing the degrading pipe and replacing it with a new and substantially better version. The original plan was Youngest, Himself and I would do it several weekends ago before the weather turned.  Himself had already demolished sections of the chimney to be able to reach and remove the offending flue then covid hit us and we could not continue. Neither of us felt well enough to lift and pull over 12 meters of metal piping up on to the roof and feed it down the chimney - we had to wait until we felt less rubbish. Fortunately last weekend Eldest came and with the three of us - I tried my best limp wristed help when ever possible - hoisted the piping up and fed it down. They were fantastic but it did take all day and they both came away with bruises and grazes.

Holes everywhere! But definitely being filled back in!

Now this weekend, Himself filled the holes, cementing the bricks back in. We then tidied and cleaned up the construction mess - it felt really good (read exhausting) to get the attic room looking nice again.

Who could resist?

Whilst we were having lunch, a little furry face appeared around my knee and asked if we could go for a walk - so we did. Via the 'dog lead-o' (lido) and that little furry face was so happy (and wet!) It is a while since we visited the neighbouring village well.  It is a year round dog favourite (hence calling it the dog lead-o). The water is bone cold even in summer but it does not seem to deter a certain dog!

Water dripping off her face as she had been trying to get her frisbee out of a rather deep hole in the 'lead-o'

Himself has lived in his new pullover and mended jeans (which I am secretly rather pleased about) and even let me take photos of him modelling them on our walk this afternoon.

I may have been looking on the internet to find another pullover for him - a simple Guernsey - I shall blame my need to knit!

And, does the fire work now the flue has been replaced? Well, it seems that it does and someone is rather pleased it has been lit.

The final note - the swallows have gone. So has summer. I am trying not to let it get to me. Bring on the knitting!

Have a good week xxxxxx

Twenty two

Sitting contemplating life at the grand old age of two and a half 

at the delightfully named 'Burblethwaite' farm in the lake district

 Aah Tuesday - hello. Not seen you around for about a week.....

Tuesday - you have a significant date today - there are other Tuesdays TBH (51 of them to be precise) and they are probably as interesting and as important. But today, 22 years ago Youngest was born.

Wee babbie C on the beach with bigger bro C in the background

22 years ago yesterday I helped carry a dining room table across a small town centre back home not long after we'd returned from Africa. Being, what felt like a huge whale sized pregga-saurous, was not going to prevent me adopting this table which was about to be thrown away.

Then in the afternoon I visited a friend at a large child friendly park so that Eldest who was only two and a half could play with her slightly older toddler. I felt weary and fed up and when Eldest fell off the mini sized play equipment yet again and howled like a bereft wolf cub with grazed knees, I decided to take him home.... only to find that I had locked the car ... with my keys inside .... and I could see them..... hanging there..... inside the car.... which was locked.

Stormy skies on Traigh beach, Ardnamurchan

My friend, who'd parked in a different car park had already gone and besides, I couldn't ring her - neither of us could afford cell phones then. I remember resting my forehead on the glass of the door window, with a small and sticky hand in mine, staring at the offending keys in the ignition.

So, with a tear-stained child in tow, I found a wire coat hanger in the undergrowth, unravelled it and managed to force it through the rubber window seal, then pull the handle enough to open the door. It 'only' took me twenty minutes, tears of frustration from both of us, nettle stings and when I finally broke into the car - not so much a happy jig of triumph - more a desperate sigh of relief. I just wanted to go home.

12 hours later - Youngest was born two weeks early. 

Happy birthday love - you still know how to make an entrance!!!

All the photos are of an ickum-bickum-Youngest - sadly due to the temperamental vagaries of laptops and computers dying and me not keeping back up copies (I do now!) - I have very few of him (digitally) of him as a wee babbie.

Visiting

Whilst waiting for lunch to finish cooking, I am sitting at the table typing to you, dear ones.

We have Eldest and his lovely girl with us for a few days, Youngest and his lovely girl will be landing later as we are getting together to celebrate Youngest's birthday. It is wonderful when they descend - Moss and Pan (the cat) are absolutely delighted and don't know which person to shed their fur on the most!)

Yesterday we visited East Riddlesden Hall again -  where the four of us wandered through the gardens which seemed to have survived the heat and lack of rain surprisingly well despite some of the plants looking a little sunburnt.

There was a wedding reception happening in one of the huge stone barns where brightly dressed and happy folk spilled out of the doors in loud and cheerful voice. The bride and her groom were taken around the gardens for their photos - hope they have a long and loving life together.

The bees and butterflies were making the most of the late summer flowers and the borders were abuzz with activity. Particularly the herb garden where even the non flowering herbs were being used. I remember reading somewhere that bees will chew on herbs to get access to their essential oils and the general agreement was that they could be doing it for medicinal reasons - how wonderful is that?

The house is always open however we usually just enjoy the garden and café. On Saturday we decided that we'd go for an explore. The house is a bit of an enigma as there seems to be a lack of relevant historical records. As with all these places, the experts can only 'suppose' or 'surmise'  to extrapolate stories. The volunteer guides were generous in their information and explanations but most came with the proviso - 'this is what the experts think but it could be open to further investigation'.

The house, when obtained by the NT, was bare bar one item - a grain 'ark' so all the furniture and furnishings, paintings and ornaments have been gradually accumulated over the last 90 years. Some original pieces from the family home as well as others from now long gone homes from the same era.

Every corner had something interesting and I suspect we could have stayed longer - chatting with the guides was very satisfying and we learnt so much.

One of the larger and more ornate rooms - a possible master bedroom had it's curtains drawn to prevent the precious textiles from fading. The 'Black work' embroidery bedspread was fascinating - the work(wo)manship was perfect and each leaf seemed to have a different pattern. I was as fascinated by it as I was the last time I came (some years ago in my capacity as a NT volunteer).

After we'd explored every room and many a photo was taken, we returned outside and sat in the grounds with hot drinks watching the ducks on the pond and the wedding party. We'd been very lucky with the weather - showers had been promised and it was only as we were planning on leaving that the clouds began to look a little menacing.

The rain in the evening was glorious - steady and deep, the garden today (Sunday) is looking quite satisfied!

Hope you all had a good weekend - here is to an excellent week! xxxxxxx